This is several days that the idea made its way

Grayed by the success of its management of the financial crisis, the head of State, who chairs the European Union since July 1, would be ready to take the head of the Eurogroup to 2010, according to the daily "Le Monde". Nicolas Sarkozy is satisfied, he said on several occasions, that only one large country led by a determined leader can accomplish the difficult mission he was assigned to the Union: play a leading role in the recasting of the financial system world.

Or to point to the European horizon two presidencies deemed problematic, and not only in Paris: the Czech Republic, on 1 January, which is not a member of the Eurogroup and is currently led by a highly Eurosceptic President Vaclav Klaus, and a Government divided on the European issue. Next comes the Sweden, in the second half of 2009, which is not a member of the Eurogroup.

If the Lisbon Treaty was ratified by the twenty-seven, he would enter into force on January 1, 2009 and the Union with a stable President intended to precisely this role of conductor of European policy. But the "not" Irish came to thwart this plan and the short Union now the risk of falling back into a routine that fears above all Nicolas Sarkozy. Hence his idea to stay in the heart of the device through a Presidency of the Eurogroup which would regularly meet at the level of Heads of State and Government.

This is several days that the idea made its way. In Brussels, at the European Summit, last week, he reiterated that he was proud to have met for the first time, on 12 October in Paris, the 15 leaders of the Eurogroup to provide a common response to the financial crisis. And that it was now to apply "the same revenues" for the recovery of the economy. Day before yesterday, the European Parliament, it had mentioned the establishment of a "clearly identified economic government" lamenting at the only level of Finance Ministers the Eurogroup lack political weight. A stone in the garden of the current President of the Eurogroup, Jean-Claude Juncker.

The initiative of Nicolas Sarkozy, that some European observers do not hesitate to compare to a "European putsch", risk once again drawing the ire of the Germany. The head of State made no formal proposal and, so far never, Berlin responded positively to the demand French to move towards a "European economic government."

Europe joysticks

Czechs and Swedes should be also shocked by this proposal which is to relegated them to the background. On the merits, however, the idea is not completely unrealistic. Many heads of Government had welcomed APFOS, at the last European Summit, that it is the France which takes the throttles of Europe at the time where the financial crisis has erupted. "We prefer not imagine how things would have turned if it was the Poland or the Slovenia who chaired the Union", welcomed a Danish diplomat.

The French President should convene a new Summit of the Eurogroup before the G20 meeting November 15 Washington (see box). From there to institutionalize the summits of the Eurogroup, as in the past, Valéry Giscard d'Estaing the fit with the summits of Heads of State...